My 2001 benz did this this season for a couple of cold mornings. FWIW run some marvel mysteriol for 5 minutes before you change the oil...seemed to help my w203 benz....c320 160K miles. Those tolerances are important. you may also want to try hy-per lube.

I have an 02 Yukon and get some noise on startup. I was told it was piston slap although it does sound like lifters. Apparently the GM 5.3 engines are notorious for this. It has something to do I think with some sort of synthetic material used in the piston skirt. There is all kinds of discussion about it on various GM owners threads. The consensus generally is that if only lasts 60 - 90 seconds its alright.

Read up on any of many forums. This was an inherent problem in 2000 - 2003 from all that I have read. I had the same issue with a 2000 Tahoe 5.3. "Had" being the key word. The issue never went away but the truck did.

I'm a bit embarassed to admit this, but the filter is the cheap, probably unbranded one they use at Jiffy-Lube. I used to always change my oil/filter myself, but disposing of the oil became a chore I no longer wanted to deal with. I still do all of the other fuel/air filters etc.

I think I'm going try your suggestion, get a Wix and maybe maybe a bit heavier oil, and see if makes any difference. I think the oil recommendation for my '01 5.3 is 5W-30 or 10W-30 and that is what has been used.

For the boat I use the FL1A and SAE 30 oil. That of course I change myself!